106 DRUM! May 2013 DRUMmagazine.com Stan Lynch, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, 1984 Custom Tama Imperialstar “Live Aid” kit I n 1983, Tom Petty And The Heartbreak- ers were packing stadiums all over the world. Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch hooked up with Joe Hibbs, Tama artist relations manager at the time, to design his next drum set. They decided to create a set inspired by the Ludwig silver sparkle set that Mitch Mitchell played with The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Mitchell’s Lud- wig set had one mounted tom and two floor toms. At Hibbs’ suggestion, they “floated” the two floor toms, mounting them on a double tom stand instead of traditional floor tom legs. Tama didn’t offer the silver sparkle finish at the time so the finish had to be special ordered, making this the only silver sparkle Imperialstar set Tama ever made. Lynch liked a wide-open sound and the drums needed to be loud, so the stock Impe- rialstar internal mufflers that were standard at the time were left off. The kit was built in what would now be considered “vintage” sizes: a 22" x 14" bass, one 13" x 9" mounted tom, and a pair of 14" x 14" and 16" x 16" suspended floor toms. He kept the whole classic vibe going with coated Remo ambassador heads all the way around. The front bass head was completely cut out. The snare is a steel-shell 14" x 5" Tama Kingbeat with a parallel throw-oﬀ. Lynch remembers the set as being really fun to play: “It was frisky. It was loud, explosive, and really tunable. Our sound guy loved them.” Lynch played this set in live perfor- mances with Tom Petty And The Heart- breakers between 1984 and 1986. It can be seen and heard on the band’s 1985 Pack Up The Plantation: Live concert video. In the summer of 1985, the band was invited to perform at Live Aid, an event to help raise funds to fight world hunger. This was the biggest musical event ever produced to date, taking place simultaneously on stages at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and JFK stadium in Philadelphia. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers played at JFK and their performance was seen by a worldwide audi- ence of an estimated 1.9 billion people. This is the set Lynch played. He left the band in 1994 and went on to become an extremely successful songwriter and producer and continues to work with some of the biggest names in the music industry. The set was acquired directly from Lynch, who traded it for a 1960s Ludwig set like the one that originally inspired the creation of this set, way back in ’83. Donn Bennett is a world-renowned collec- tor and dealer of rare and vintage drums. His collection is on display at Donn Bennett Drum Studio in Bellevue, Washington. DRUM! (USPS-23586) is a registered trademark of Enter Music Publishing, Inc. DRUM! is published 12 times per year for $24.95 by Enter Music Publishing, Inc. DRUM!, 95 South Market St. Suite 430, San Jose, CA 95113. Tel: 408-971-9794, Fax: 408-971-0300. Periodical Postage Paid at San Jose and at additional mailing oﬃces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DRUM!, PO Box 460849, Escondido, CA 92046-0849. All material published in DRUM! is copyrighted © 2013 by Enter Music Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in DRUM! is forbidden without written permission. Distributed by Curtis Circulation. ISSN# 1097-0614. PRINTED IN THE USA. Time Capsule By Donn Bennett D203_106_TimeCapsule.indd 106 3/15/13 11:18 AM

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106 DRUM! May 2013 DRUMmagazine.com

Stan Lynch, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, 1984 Custom Tama Imperialstar “Live Aid” kit

In 1983, Tom Petty And The Heartbreak-ers were packing stadiums all over the world. Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch hooked up with Joe Hibbs, Tama

artist relations manager at the time, to design his next drum set. They decided to create a set inspired by the Ludwig silver sparkle set that Mitch Mitchell played with The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Mitchell’s Lud-wig set had one mounted tom and two floor toms. At Hibbs’ suggestion, they “floated” the two floor toms, mounting them on a double tom stand instead of traditional floor tom legs. Tama didn’t offer the silver sparkle finish at the time so the finish had to be special ordered, making this the only silver sparkle Imperialstar set Tama ever made. Lynch liked a wide-open sound and the drums needed to be loud, so the stock Impe-rialstar internal mufflers that were standard at the time were left off.

The kit was built in what would now be considered “vintage” sizes: a 22" x 14" bass, one 13" x 9" mounted tom, and a pair of 14" x 14" and 16" x 16" suspended floor toms. He kept the whole classic vibe going with coated Remo ambassador heads all the way around. The front bass head was completely cut out. The snare is a steel-shell 14" x 5" Tama Kingbeat with a parallel throw-off. Lynch remembers the set as being really fun to play: “It was frisky. It was loud, explosive, and really tunable. Our sound guy loved them.”

Lynch played this set in live perfor-mances with Tom Petty And The Heart-breakers between 1984 and 1986. It can be seen and heard on the band’s 1985 Pack Up The Plantation: Live concert video. In the summer of 1985, the band was invited to perform at Live Aid, an event to help raise funds to fight world hunger. This was the biggest musical event ever produced to date,

taking place simultaneously on stages at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and JFK stadium in Philadelphia. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers played at JFK and their performance was seen by a worldwide audi-ence of an estimated 1.9 billion people. This is the set Lynch played.

He left the band in 1994 and went on to become an extremely successful songwriter and producer and continues to work with some of the biggest names in the music industry. The set was acquired directly from Lynch, who traded it for a 1960s Ludwig set like the one that originally inspired the creation of this set, way back in ’83.

Donn Bennett is a world-renowned collec-tor and dealer of rare and vintage drums. His collection is on display at Donn Bennett Drum Studio in Bellevue, Washington.

DRUM! (USPS-23586) is a registered trademark of Enter Music Publishing, Inc. DRUM! is published 12 times per year for $24.95 by Enter Music Publishing, Inc. DRUM!, 95 South Market St. Suite 430, San Jose, CA 95113. Tel: 408-971-9794, Fax: 408-971-0300. Periodical Postage Paid at San Jose and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DRUM!, PO Box 460849, Escondido, CA 92046-0849. All material published in DRUM! is copyrighted © 2013 by Enter Music Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in DRUM! is forbidden without written permission. Distributed by Curtis Circulation. ISSN# 1097-0614. PRINTED IN THE USA.

Time Capsule By Donn Bennett

D203_106_TimeCapsule.indd 106 3/15/13 11:18 AM